Skirting Boards.. or not.

[Roger H]

Hi. I am getting to the near end of sorting some rooms in my ex 1820's former brewery, now house. Looks more or less like a barn. Some rough, lime plastered walls, some new dry-lining, some timber matchboarding. The original 'skirting' was only in a few places, seemingly to fill the gap between floor and the wall. It was triangular in section like a sawn-down the middle 3x3, but very gappy because of the irregularity of the walls.

How has anyone else tackled skirting in similar buildings? Is it a practical necessity to protect walls from chairs etc. or should I not bother? Or should I put in something similar to the traingular sections that were present in parts? Thanks for advice,

Roger.

 

[JanieB]

Mine isn't a barn, but most of it is pre 1820. The only skirting boards are on the groundfloor where some philistine concreted over the original flags/tiles and added cork tiles and skirting boards in 1981. The other two floors look fine without them.

 

[Ian Bond]

The only place I fitted skirting where it wasn't originally is on a lath and plaster wall in the attic. Skirting will certainly help protect the L&P wall from damage.

With limewashed or plastered brick/masonry I would not bother. Fitting skirting neatly with wobbly walls and oddly angled corners is a pain, so I'd only do it in a building that was intended to have them.

You've got a good excuse not to bother, as you are maintaining the building's character that comes from its industrial origins

 

[Gervase]

Pre-1860s in more modest houses, skirting was generally only seen downstairs, and then only in 'public' rooms like the hallway, parlour/sitting room and not in the kitchen, scullery or pantry.

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

I did some work in a cottage renovation where the skirtings in the downstairs were originally run in mortar. They were recreated in the new work, run in by eye by the guys who did the plastering. You can see a section in the photo:

This use of render or cement skirtings is not uncommon in ground floors in 'rough' buildings in this area (North West) Certainly no problems with timber skirtings rotting due to damp!

 

[Ian Bond]

I like that Andrew.

Love the way the plaster sweeps to the skirting. And the staircase!

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

Thanks Ian. The staircase is one of mine. We built it with green oak for the central post, but used kilned oak for the treads and risers to avoid shrinkage problems. The hardest part was working out the geometry to fit it in the available space, get the required height gain and meet all the relevant building regs.
As you can see it was still waiting for the fixing holes to be pegged when the picture was taken. See my website if you'd like more pics of that cottage interior.

 

[Ian Bond]

Anyone who's carried out joinery work in wonky old houses will know what an understatement that was.

I am suitably impressed. Not least with getting it to conform to B regs.

I will have a look at your site later.

 

[MdB]

Wouldn't shrinkage be a problem for the parts made from green oak as well? Obviously not but why not? I've a couple of projects in mind to be made out of oak and I'm not sure which type to use. Green is easier to work but shrinks / warps, dried is as hard as nails (or at least so I have read).

 

[piper]

Andrew, that work is superb. Congratulations.

This thread is now neatly linked into the other current one on "taste".

 

[Penners]

Brilliant job, Andrew!

Having made my own staircase last year - just a simple straight run - I know how much trouble I had with the geometry. So I can't imagine how you worked that one out!

Roger - just a note about skirtings. My own house (C18) has very simple, unmoulded, square-edge boards, about 5/8" x 4". I don't think any of them are original, but I suspect they may have followed the original style as and when they were renewed. Considering this is a simple vernacular building (it's been a miller's house, an ale house, a pub, the village shop) I think these look right.

I also think a house of this age looks unfinished without skirting boards - but that's just personal taste.

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

Wouldn't shrinkage be a problem for the parts made from green oak as well? Obviously not but why not? I've a couple of projects in mind to be made out of oak and I'm not sure which type to use. Green is easier to work but shrinks / warps, dried is as hard as nails (or at least so I have read).

We're a bit off the skirtings thread here, but it's a fair question.
I used green for the central post because I wanted it to develop some character as it dried out. Axial shrinkage is minimal, so the essentail geometry would not be affected. Tangential shrinkage was allowed for by generous depth where stringers, treads etc were tenoned in. The fact that we could obtain a 7" square x 5m piece of green oak fairly easily was also a consideration.
The green was certainly easy to work; cutting tenons etc. was a doddle. A bit clogging of saw blades though. Kiln dried oak is not hard to work if you keep everything sharp. Of course we used power tools for most of the construction, keeping laborious hand work for visible elements.
The whole thing is an elaborate pastiche, of course, a sort of distillation of different ideas about honesty of materials, the character and age of the house, and most importantly what the owners wanted. After all, they've got to go up and down it every day.

 

[MdB]

Thanks for that Andrew and sorry for being off topic. (Interesting units too )

 

[bower1]

I have gone without skirting downstairs where there are solid walls. Protecting the walls is all relative. I don't have to worry about the skirting getting damaged! But if you have non-solid walls, have you not got a gap that need covering anyway?

Personally I think a tiled/slate floor looks better without skirting.

 

[Roger H]

Thanks all. I reckon it's omit them against the really wobbly rubble walls, traingular section in parts to match surviving remnants, and Penner's square edged boards on the studwork. Much appreciated.

 

[Penners]

Penner's square edged boards on the studwork.

Frankly, I'd rather you bought your own.

 

[Cloudscape]

I prefer to have no skirting boards... or excitingly deep ones.

Plain skirting-board-like boxing can be useful though, for enclosing pipes or wires. :wink: